1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle occupant protection apparatus, and more specifically, it relates to a knee protection apparatus for a vehicle occupant, which protects the occupant's knees by deploying an airbag stored in front of the knees using the gas from an inflator upon collision of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known protection apparatus of this kind (e.g., Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2002-249016) includes an airbag that is provided wrapped in front of the knees of an occupant and, when supplied with gas from an inflator, develops along the surface of the instrument panel to expand between the instrument panel and the occupant's knees.
However, there is only a small space allowed for such deployment of the airbag, namely between the instrument panel and the knees of the occupant, and what is more, there are protrusions and indentations on the instrument panel side, such as those formed to provide good appearance of the instrument panel and formed by some related parts attached thereon, and it is therefore considered that the airbag would get caught on such protrusions and indentations when it expands as aforementioned.